Improvement in chairs for invalids



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

GEORGE `A. MANSFIELD, OF MELROSE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CHAIRS FOR INVALIDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 39,663. dated August 25, 1863; antedated December 21, 1861.

To a/ZZ whom, it may concern:

Beit known that I, GEORGE A. MANsEiELD, of Melrose, county of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts, have invented a ne7 and useful physiological improvement in the form` and construction of chairs, whereby they are adapted to the cure and prevention of consumption and other diseases of thechest, the great advantages of which I have already proven; and I do hereby declare that the following description, with the accompanying drawings, forms a full, clear, and exact speciiication thereof'.

My improvement is in the upright support or back of the chairs, as it is termed. In nearly all chairs or seats ot' every kind the back is either flat or circular by an inward curve, in either ot which cases there is a constant tendency to foice the shoulder-blades forward and compress the chest. The drawings represent one of my improved chairs, adapted to obviate this objection.

Figure l js a side view of the chair. Fig. 2 is a horizontal cross-section on line A B of Fig. l, showing also by red lines (for illustration) the outline-section through the chest of a person sittingin the chair.

On the front part of the back of the chair I construct a protuberant projection, a, ot

several inches in length, and of sufficient projection and ot' such limited width as to pass in between the shoulder-blades I2', (red,) and support the dorsal column c (red) of the patient. I make the dorsal supporter a of any suitable material, otl such limited elasticity and softness as not to irritate the patients back, and I either construct thc same homogeneously with the back of the chair or make it sepa.

rately, and affix the same in any convenient method to the back ot' the chair as a distinct xture.

For school-chairs andsome other situations where appearance is not of consequence, my principle may be attained in a degree by making the back of the chair of such limited width as to pass completely in between the shoulderblades and leave their backward movement free.

I claim- The dorsal supportera, -constructed with or I applied to the back of a chair, substantially as described, and specifically for the objects and purposes set forth.

GEO. A. MANS FIELD.

Witnesses:

LUTHER BRIGGs, J r., BENJ. P. CHANDLER. 

